OIAF Day 4

Here's where things started to get really interesting for me, at least. Firstly, I started crossing paths with more teachers from other schools than anything else but my day did not start there, Early morning was the Animators for Hire sessions and there was a number of things I did not expect to see! Namely the way in which it was setup. There was 2 lines. One in which you could attend panels from industry leaders about portfolios and demo reels (which I took in) And the other line is to register for honest to god job interviews and one on one portfolio assesments. In other words, SIGN UP HERE FOR A SHOT AT A JOB. The studios you were registering for a shot with? Rainmaker Animation, Walt Disney Studios, Nelvana, Mercury Filmworks, and Guru Studios. Interesting way of recruiting, but there were 2 other major studios doing recruiting that way that I wasn't aware of. Huminah-Huminah animation (A Nova Scotia based Flash animation company) and Warner Bros, who were looking for talent in both 2D and 3D. Now the event officially started at 9:15am, I showed up at 8:30am, and there was already loooooong line for the recruiting and portfolios. Needless to say, this sells the need of having strong job finding tools at the ready when coming here! As well as willingness to get up at what many might call too-early o'clock to ensure you get a good spot in line! Boils down to 'How badly do you want this?' Which leads me to a Facebook post made by Gene Fowler, director of Loogaroo "Half of our team just got back for the OIAF last night. What a great time! Lots of work out there folks, you just gotta dig for it."

Now the panels of portfolios and demo reels! This is where the post might be a bit confusing, at the speed things were going my notes kinda went all over the place, a crude spiderweb of henscratch, so I'm going to have quotes listed, and some of the questions asked with thier answers, and hopefully you'll get something out of it! I'm gonna try my best not to lose you all, here! *laughs*

Firstly the panelists: Anne Denman; Director of HR & Recruitment at DHX Media - Vancouver , Tom Knott; Assistant Production Manager at Warner Bros. Animation , Dawn Haagstad; Senior Recruiter at Pixar Animation Studios, and Fran Krause; Animation Instructor for the Computer Arts & Technology Department, New York. I'll be putting snippets by thier names.There was a bit of an agreed consensus on a few things, firstly having a website. In this age, it's practically not an option. Have one, and make it good. If that means hiring someone else to build one for you if you're not that strong in web design, or if you want to buy pre-made website templates that you touch up and make your own (You really would be amazed at how much this happens, even moreso how much effort it saves!) then so be it! You MUST have an online presence, as it's the most easily accessable thing to anyone!

The first thing someone interested in you is gonna do is google you. If you have nothing coming up? Well.. no cookie for you. your portfolio itself? You should be able to build more than one. Why? Every studio has different needs, and it's up to you to do your research and figure out those needs, and cater to them directly. Word of mouth still accounts for about 80% of job getting, this ties into a few things I consistently soapbox at school 'Be professional to everyone. Don't be a jerk. You NEVER know who might be looking for an artist who does what you do well, and if you've left a bad impression on someone for whatever reason, be it personal, or professional (breaking contract, not delivering results) bad press travels FAST. In a community as tightly knit as animation? You cannot afford such a reputation, especially if you're still attempting to get your foot in the door!' and so on and so forth. Once you've gotten your foot in, however, this becomes more and more important.

Fran Krause: The Demo Reel of mine you just saw is the first one I've needed to make in almost 12 years since graduating. After my first major gig, my reputation started to precedede me, and since I maintained it, I've never found myself without work. When a job is finished, people are already aware of me, and what I do, and how well I do it, so landing another one usually isn't a problem. I get by on my merits, and how well I can work with everyone.

Now Fran also showed us his original Demo Reel and explained how it got him a job.

Fran Krause: I got my first job from an interesting chain of events. I graduated and did up my animated short, I entered it into a festival, hoping something would happen. It actually got screened! and the director of Blue's clues was in the audience at the time. He came looking for me later at the afterparty in the bar, and we set up and interview right there of all places. After the festival, there were 2 shows I got the chance to do a test for. Blue's Clues, and another french show based here in Ottawa.. the name escapes me right now, but that test was shorter. I had a flight to catch, so I went for the shorter test. Somehow the Blue's Clues director found
me doing the test at this other studio, looked at it, and hired me for his studio. It was really big stroke of luck, I think, but hey! I wasn't complaining! Every other job since then, I can trace back to people I met in college, or connections I've made at other festivals I went to, and that's it! Always reminds me what a small community it feels like sometimes!

While I definitely agree on the stroke of luck part, that Reel and short he said got screened was actually really strong. The jobs he got after? That ties right into my soapboxing I mentioned earlier up! And the word of mouth thing also earlier. Never doubt the power of networking!

Great points he brought up for students and graduates looking for work include:
-Don't put it on your reel if you hated doing it. You gotta love it! If I looked at your reel and wanted to hire you because of a really nice set of special effects and you only did it to look cool and hated doing it, I'm hiring you for the wrong reason, and you'll hate your job! In this industry, you have to love what you do.
-Save your source material. If you need to re-cut a new reel, it's just so much easier to have the source that you can re-export and re-cut much cleaner, it just makes things so much easier. Don't forget to have backup copies!

Anne Denman, on applying for a job at a studio,

Anne Denman: Don't start your email or application with dear sir, or madam. Especially not just dear sir. That one still makes me laugh. If you're linking me to your blog? Keep it to your name. One applicant sent me a blog named 'Slippery Nipples' I didn't get back to that one. Next, while you might be tempted to put all kinds of fluff such as 'I think I'm such a great fit for your studio, I saw such and such a movie and it changed my life blablabla', just.. don't. Get to the point. Paint me your blue sky. What you'd do in my studio if you had your druthers. Like 'I'm a Flash artist, and I want to specialize in Layout design' Keep it nice and simple. Fluff is just as annyoing to read as it is to write. I'm not interested, you're not interested.. lets do us both a favor, shall we?
Question for Anne: " As far as submitting a demo reel, do you prefer digital submission, like a link, or would you rather have the material portfolio right in front of you, printed on disc or paper, etc"Answer: "That's something that really varies from studio to studio. You're going to find that you need to really research where you want to apply and what they want, and what they expect. Myself? I'd rather have a link, it's just much easier to deal with. Now Fran, here on the other hand, likes discs, because he can send them around the office much quicker somehow."

Fran Krause (Adding to Anne's Answer): Research is Key when job hunting. If you're applying to a place, as she said, research its needs! There was this one ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) Animator I know who kept applying to Pixar. They knew he was a skilled animator based on his submissions, but it didn't focus on character acting, which is the biggest factor of applying there. He kept applying with different reels, using his rejection letters as inspiration 'This is what I want, and dammit I'm having it!' And a few applicaitons later? Pixar took him. As an animator on Toy Story 3. After he understood the needs of the studio and started really
catering to em!

About here, I'm gonna stand on my soapbox again. YOU CAN NEVER ASK TOO MANY QUESTIONS. This is gonna get tied back into moreso as the listing goes on. Anyway..

Tom Knott on dealing with animation tests. (Animation tests sometimes follow interviews, they can make or break decisions about you getting hired or not. But just because you don't get hired doesn't mean the test isn't still usfeul to you! Read on:)

Tom Knott: If you get a test, DO IT. But most importantly, ASK QUESTIONS. Like, what's a good time budget for this test? Some people will take a test, do it in a day to show me how fast they can work and lo and behold, it sucks. On the other hand I get people who would take..sometimes over a week to deliver something decent, but it takes way too long. Find the time budget and try to strike yourself out a solid schedule, give yourself a better idea of how to go about it. Questions to ask once you've submitted it? Try how do I make this stronger, what do I need to tweak, or where did I flat out just go wrong? This won't only help you as animators, but this, far more importantly, helps you establish rapport with the director, which gives you an instant foot in the door. And the best part? Even if you don't get hired, you can take their revisions, providing you get over your ego enough to do them anyway, to make it even stronger. What then? Well you just got yourself a strong demo reel peice! Just don't forget to note it was a test! Don't forget about that rapport you're building either! Once the revisions are done, send em again! You never know. The worst you could get out of it is a demo reel peice, and is that really so bad?

Anne Denman, adding to Tom's comments: Never be afraid of walking into a studio, declaring what you'd like to do and how you would like to get better. Even if you can't find a job, you're still getting VITAL feedback and as Tom said, rapport with the studio. directors will seldom ever turn away someone who's asking the right kinds of questions.

Dawn Haagstad on Job Interviews:
 Ask so much questions you might think you're annoying your director, but think of it like this. you're there to make your client happy, and you can only do so if you know exactly what they want. We don't really look for someont that does only what a director says and calls it a day, We want somoene who's willing to ask the kins of questions needed to ensure the best scene can be made! When you have an interview, turn your phone off. This seems like a no brainer, and sometimes poeple get calls during interviews get calls and they scramble, apologizing profusely, and that's all well and good, but we've had some canditates, and I must stress, more than one, who have actually taken the call. Afterwards, They were immediately told, 'I think we're done here.' Needless to say, they didn't get the job! And if you're in transition, like you got fired from another job for doing.. well whatever, trust me, we don't wanna hear it! If you were fired, it was probably for a good reason, and if you put that before us, it might be giving us a great reason to not hire you!

I'm sure at this point I don't need to point out the importance of questions again! Ties right back into 'How badly do you want this?'

Continuing on..

Dawn Haagstad on Demo Reel assembly: Put your best stuff first, come out swinging. If you make someone wait to see your best stuff through a bunch of okay stuff, you really think they're gonna wait around? Not really. If you don't tell us then and there why we need you, odds are your reel is going to be instantly forgotten. One of the biggest things that will make your reel stand out is effective subtle character acting. Why? Because it's really hard to do! Your reel itself should be nice and punchy, 30 seconds to a minute and a half, 2 minutes is really pushing it.

And lastly more general consensus the panelists could argree on!
-Google stalk the staff of the studio. Learn their reels and what got them hired!
-In every email you send, have your COMPLETE contact info, address and all.
-No reel Gimmicks (sparklies, other things meant to distract)

And that's just a sampler, guys! Lots to take in! Even more to come tomorrow!